Starting Wednesday, all Maine drivers are now expected to move over a lane or reduce their speed when approaching a disabled vehicle on the side of the road.
Most Mainers already do this as a common courtesy, but the updated law now applies to all vehicles, including emergency vehicles, tow truck drivers, garbage trucks and disabled vehicles.
But when should drivers move over, and what exactly is a prudent speed? We asked Maine State Police Lt. Bruce Scott what drivers should know about this new law — and how to know if you’re obeying it properly.
Below are Scott’s answers, edited for clarity and length. The full text of the law can be read here.
What does this new law mean for drivers?
What that means for drivers is that we’re asking them to do what most of them are already doing as a general courtesy. If you see a vehicle — and a reasonable person would conclude that it’s disabled — you reduce your speed and pass in a non-adjacent lane, if one’s available.
Often that means using your speed lower than that of the speed limit. How much lower would depend on the conditions of the other traffic, how wide the lanes are, and how dangerous this appears. We’re asking that people use courtesy and continue to drive safely, almost in a manner that they’ve been doing for years. But it’s now codified in statute.
If we’re in the middle of summer with heavy traffic but there’s a disabled vehicle off to the side of the right lane, what does “slow down” mean in that circumstance?
Technically, “slow down” really isn’t in the statute. What the statute says is that you would have to pass that vehicle at a reasonable and prudent speed. That’s a lot of gray area.
“Slow down, move over” is the slogan and that’s the advertising plug. The statute doesn’t technically require a slowdown. Because what if you’re already going slow? What if you’re already at a crawl? What if there’s a crash and there’s vehicles on the side of the road and now traffic is backed up and you’re already down to 5 mph? We probably don’t want you to reduce your speed more because you’re going to stop traffic and you’re gonna cause a secondary collision further back.
If you’re doing the speed limit and you see a disabled motorist, just reduce your speed, let off the throttle. If you can change lanes, change lanes. If you see somebody, whether it’s a police officer or a civilian changing their flat tire, then slow down even more. It doesn’t really require a slowdown, as much as it requires that you pass at a reasonable and prudent speed based on all of the conditions that we talked about.
What are troopers looking for in drivers who might be breaking this law?
We’re going to look for them to pass at what we would all agree is a safe speed when they see a disabled motorist or any other vehicle now. Change your driving behavior when you’re going by one of these vehicles. We’re just looking, are you noticeably reducing your speed or are you just buzzing by doing 75, you have your cruise set, and you never touch it?
But I just don’t want drivers to jam on their brakes and overreact either. The general flow of traffic should only be reduced slightly so that they can safely proceed by these vehicles to give an opportunity for them to react should something happen.
So if you’re on Interstate 95 and going 70 mph, we’re not talking about dropping down to 45 mph if you see a disabled vehicle?
No. Absolutely not.
We want to make sure that the public is cognizant that there’s a different degree of danger, depending on how close this vehicle is to the road and if there are other means for you to get around it. If you’re passing in a non-adjacent lane, then you may not have to reduce your speed at all, or very little. If you’re passing within a foot of somebody, then you have to reduce your speed even more.
If the vehicle is completely off the road, off the tar and in the ditch, there’s probably no need to reduce your speed at all. Because there’s a safe distance, there’s a cushion, for us to be able to go by safely.
My next question was going to be what if the vehicle is all the way off the road.
That’s a good point. We want to make those distinctions so that the general public is able to travel comfortably and not say, “That that vehicle is so far off the road, it doesn’t make any sense that we would slow down, but I’m going to drop 20 mph and cause a traffic jam, because I want to comply with the law.”
We don’t want to go the other way, right? We don’t want to get to the point that we’re actually going too slow on any roadway system, because then you’re impeding the flow of traffic, which is also a violation.
How does a driver make the decision between getting over to the left lane or staying in the right land and just reducing speed there?
I would ask that motorists, if they have plenty of time and distance, that they safely move over to an adjacent lane, if they can do so. If there’s not an adjacent lane that makes it really easy, you can’t go to a lane that doesn’t exist. Then you just need to react accordingly and appropriately and slow down if necessary to pass at a prudent speed when you go by.
What I don’t want is for motorists to be so fixated on, “I have to pass in a non adjacent lane,” that they cut somebody else off, force someone off the road or cause a collision.
I’m in the right lane preparing to pass a disabled vehicle. I look to get into the left lane, but there’s somebody coming up fast behind me. Do I move over and still maintain the speed limit in the left lane, or do I reduce my speed in the right lane?
I would hope that both vehicles would react and slow down. But if they’re coming at you at a high rate of speed, the last thing I want is for one of our motorists to put themselves in greater danger by trying to cut somebody off and maybe cause a crash. If you just slowed down when you pass by in that closest lane, you’re providing that cushion of safety for the disabled vehicle.
When you see a disabled vehicle in the left lane, does this same law apply?
Yes, it does. That’s why it just says passing a non-adjacent lane, as opposed to pass to the furthest lane to the left.
This applies to all roads, not just the turnpike or an interstate, correct?
Correct.
When you’re on a two-lane road and somebody is pulled off to the side, how does that work?
Whoever has the obstruction on their side of the road is the one that’s required to wait to pass until it’s safe. But you certainly can go out some into the other lane to pass safely, as long as there’s no traffic coming at you.
Is there anything else drivers should know?
The fine is $275. But with the surcharges and the fees, it’s actually a $355 fine for a first offense.
It’s very expensive, and we would prefer not to have to issue tickets. Our goal would be voluntary compliance.
